DrGabe's Pathfinder Society Game, Group B (Inactive)

Game Master DrGabe

DM, in PFS play, would Ruprecht be able to gain anything from the formulae book? Could he add the spells to his book or is that disallowed as too big a benefit or something?

My understanding is that you can do it. There are rules that cover this in the 4.3 guide.

Yes, that is my understanding as well since you gain spells as a wizard does. I think you keep it and then at the end of the adventure you can get access to the new spells/formula.

Awesome!!! Thanks...

How far to drop them back out? Arduino is not going to kill them.

From the PRD, CRB Magic Section:

Spells Copied from Another's Spellbook or a Scroll: A wizard can also add a spell to his book whenever he encounters one on a magic scroll or in another wizard's spellbook. No matter what the spell's source, the wizard must first decipher the magical writing (see Arcane Magical Writings). Next, he must spend 1 hour studying the spell. At the end of the hour, he must make a Spellcraft check (DC 15 + spell's level). A wizard who has specialized in a school of spells gains a +2 bonus on the Spellcraft check if the new spell is from his specialty school. If the check succeeds, the wizard understands the spell and can copy it into his spellbook (see Writing a New Spell into a Spellbook). The process leaves a spellbook that was copied from unharmed, but a spell successfully copied from a magic scroll disappears from the parchment.

There is also a cost associated with the spell, The table doesn't copy but: 0 Lvl: 5gp, 1 Lvl: 10gp, 2 Lvl: 40gp, 3Lvl 90gp, etc.

And also from the PRD, APG, Alchemist Section

An alchemist can also add formulae to his book just like a wizard adds spells to his spellbook, using the same costs, pages, and time requirements. An alchemist can study a wizard's spellbook to learn any formula that is equivalent to a spell the spellbook contains. A wizard, however, cannot learn spells from a formula book. An alchemist does not need to decipher arcane writings before copying them.

How I think this should work, is at the end of the scenario you make your checks and the successful spells/formula learned are put in the conditions/items gained part of the chronicle sheet and the appropriate amount of gold is paid. This also serves as your record to show other GM's in the future.

I am fine with that interpretation, DM.

As an FYI, I think you can take 10 on these spell checks, but you might want to double check.

Yes I think you can Take '10' on them as well. There is no 'harm' in failure and further more at some point learning a low level spell becomes trivial.

Heh, you're being very kind with my bluff attempts, Gabe. Most GMs in Pathfinder games would've just stared at me and said "He ignores you" before moving onto the players who can actually do some hitting :)

I think you deserve at least 50% of the credit, Arduino, for bluffing to begin with. Only on the rarest occasions have I seen players use bluff in combat. Combining it was very creative and I'll have to look up that spell just to understand it better.

nice job.

Desperate times; it's interesting finding effective ways to play a character with only four spells per day :)

And Message is quite handy. Particularly as it's almost perfect for eavesdropping.

Particularly as it's almost perfect for eavesdropping.

That's an interesting supposition. I have to wonder if the target has to intend to reply and technically it requires that the person "whispers" back.

Personally, I tend to be very restrictive with 0 level spells because they are free and represent the most basic skill and sophistication with using magic.

That's the way my GM has always ruled it - the intent and whisper.

I knew about the whisper but didn't realize there had to be intent.

Useful for eavesdropping on people trying to avoid being eavesdropped on.

Arduino, I agree with Kujo- you are using the skill well. Its also helpful to go up against hapless goblins!
I too have had PFS GM's say it doesn't work without even looking at the skill and moving on. It sucks, and I try to not have a player get a bad taste like that.

Additionally, I think that every encounter should have a non-combat option to it. Perhaps it means diplomacy to avoid combat, or something like this to turn the tide of the combat.
Plus I like your choice of words to intimidate the goblin, that gives you a far amount of leeway with me!

Kujo, all of your assumptions in game play were right on. Nice move... dead goblin leader!

Additionally, I think that every encounter should have a non-combat option to it.

Kujo is fine with that as long as every non-combat situation has a combat option to it :)

We would have to see Kujo th Solver in action with his mighty pen and magnifying glass in hand. :-p

Well I wish they made the encounters with a non-combat in mind. It doesn't mean that there will be a non-combat to solution to every encounter! lol (Nice one Grim... that got another chuckle from me!)

Its like when you fight oozes or plants in a pit- you just have to chop until it dies...

Are you kidding? Plants and oozes are the creatures that Kujo can totally outsmart!

lol... I think that says more about Kujo than anything else!

I recommend those of you in the back keep an eye on Ekiee, I'd make sure he's not armed.

Alright gang, we are getting dangerously close to completing this mission! I'll wait to hand out accolades until you actually finish though. :)
The question is what do we want to do next? The fist option is to do another typical scenario. I am sure there is another goblin caper that needs to be solved! Though, I don't have a particular scenario in mind right now. If you have a suggestion, then throw it out there.

However, what I have been thinking about is doing a Module or Adventure Path. If you are not familiar with how this works: you play in a longer scenario, typically about twice as long as a current scenario. There are no faction missions. At the end you get 3exp and 4 prestige points. Currently there are two Adventure Paths in which you can play a small portion of the adventure path to get PFS credit. There are also a few modules which fit our current levels that would be good choices for PFS credit. These work about the same as the Adventure Paths.

Choice one would be the new Thorn Keep Module. The first, low level dungeon has gotten good reviews.
Choice two would be Shatter Star: Shards of Sin which is a low level dungeon crawl linked to a much larger story.

So what sounds good?

I'm in a Shattered Star game, so I'd prefer to play Thornkeep, if the rest of the group would be willing.

Will Kujo get an opportunity to complete his faction mission?

Regarding next.

Will you be running this double with the other group or separately? The reason I ask is I want to make sure our progress is not tied to another group.

EDIT:

I'm also running SS with another group, though not for PFS credit.

How many modules would we be running, just the first?

This'll put me up to level 2, should be fun deploying some extra spellcasting mojo. Haven't played either.

I am good with either of those options. I can get Grim to 2nd level with a gm credit I am about to finish if that helps even out the group.

Btw, I am flying to FLA tomorrow for a wedding so might have limited posts until Sunday. Feel free to bot me if I am holding anything up.

I'm good with thornkeep. I'm not in shattered star but since two others are, we can go with the other mod.

Will Kujo get an opportunity to complete his faction mission?

In the first area (the one with the trap) you can harvest the mushrooms there. It takes a survival or knowledge nature check to complete the mission.

Will you be running this double with the other group or separately? The reason I ask is I want to make sure our progress is not tied to another group.

There are no hard and fast rules about this. But I try to run three tables using the same scenario, just to keep my sanity. But the tables run at their own pace. I've found in the first two scenarios that the ebb and flow even out over the course of one scenario.

I'm also running SS with another group, though not for PFS credit.
How many modules would we be running, just the first?

At the moment, it would be just the first one. More could be done in the future of course, depending on levels. So far, most of the players have expressed interest in continuing to play with the same characters so I'd like to follow the natural advancement as much as possible.

Sorry, I must have missed or spaced on the description of the mushrooms. I thought we'd be going outside at some point. Hopefully I can go back and attempt it.

I definitely like the group. I'm somewhat leery about a module because they usually involve a lot more problem solving and Kujo is dead weight in those situations, in fact I was playing a Kujo clone in Murder's Mark and finally had to ask the GM to let me swap him for someone with something to say.

I also hate the fact that Modules cheat you of 2pp.

How many level 2's will we have? Should we run the 2-4 or stick with the 1-2?

Arduino is happy to forfeit his turn.

@Aruduino- that is fine, but technically speaking you have a move action left if you want to use it. Your call.

@Kujo - I haven't read Thornkeep but that is what the majority of players have asked for. I would think that it is mostly a dungeon crawl with some exploration involved (at least that is what Shattered Star is mostly). Would you want to play it? You are the only one thus far that has a conflict. There will be 1's and 2's. I think the APL for each table is likely to still be 2 (not 3 with full tables), but that is TBD.
I see both sides of the PP issue, but don't really care that much in the end.
Yes, you will be able to go back at the end of the scenario. No biggie.

Na. Happy with my position.

Hrrmm; personally I would like to avoid a dungeon crawl, having only five spells per day. But not really fussed.

Well, Kujo is my one character that doesn't benefit from PP as much as my other two, so I'm fine with a module.

I see both sides of the PP issue, but don't really care that much in the end.

What's the other side? I've never understood why PFS gives you 3xp but only 4 PP. True, you don't do faction missions, but why not just give the player the full 6 pp?

FYI, on the map, I had Kujo move in front of Grim before combat began.

Well I think there is an assumption that you always get max PP per scenario. I know some players build around getting max PP and how they will spend it in emergency situations. However, especially in games I've played the last year or so, I've seen less than max PP more and more often. Some of the challenges are very much skill related and occasionally at high levels characters may not be able to complete the mission. So the modules assume that you get some/most of your PP and the average out is 2/3 if you were to play three games.
On the other hand, you are not working for your faction but you are completing something spectacular that gives your faction prestige.
The modules also mitigate the risk of death. If you get a real death its not necessarily applied to your PFS character since many times you could be using a home character.
So I think that 'other side' of the argument is that there is less risk for a module character, so the reward is a bit lower. The gold and items tend to be just about as good (for what little I have seen).

If PFSOP assumes people are using these for home games and they aren't applied to existing characters, then I'll probably make a suggestion that PFS should have two types of rewards: one for people who are playing with their PFS legal characters and one for everyone else.

If you're only getting 4xp, then it would seem they are assuming you are only completing one of the faction missions. Kujo did fail one of his faction missions to-date because of how one scenario was written.

If module is what everyone wants, that's fine. The group is good and Kujo seems to fill a needed role.

Well I have always been of the opinion that PFS isn't the best possible solution to a large organized play game. But it is the best option that is available. It allows people to play in all sorts of venues (even electronic!). I guess at this point, I am happy to take the good with the bad and keep moving on.

In that situation Kujo I'd be suspicious about the GM not the module. I've seen more than a few GM mistakes (made quite a few myself) that greatly changes how the module runs.

I agree about PFS in taking the good with the bad. I think they've got a TON of things right. Eliminating homebrew rules and the inconsistency of rules that so often plague PbP is a huge plus in my book.

As far as the scenario, believe me, at the time I was incredulous. But I didn't question the GM and I just took my lumps. Glad I did because I went back and read it a month or so later and based on what I read, he played it exactly as written as far as I could tell. The GM said there were a lot of nonsense mechanics in the game and I believe him based on my own GMing. It's hard to write combat mechanics in a scenario because it's just impossible to predict all the ways combat my unfold.

I also find that many scenarios can be very railroad-ish because of the time constraints. This often forces authors to mandate stuff happens even if it doesn't really work within the rules or lacks plausibility.

But, it's a game and you kind of have to roll with it. I enjoy PFS a lot more than random PbP.

Gabe,

Here is an example of ditzie maps. I have uploaded your .png map to the directory of an account. Then I an access the map and add tokens. The Grim and Inslokar tokens are moveable. The rest are part of the underlying image.

Chambe 1

Anyone can move a token and then hit ENTER. This generates a new URL which you can past as link. Old URL's provide old maps and are unaffected by anyone changing the map. Every time a GM or player moves a token or changes he map, they hit enter and post the new URL.

Chamber 1 with moved tokens

This allows everyone to move their character as they need to and post the updated position. Old urls remain modified and that provides revision history.

ditzie is free, but there's not much support. There's a little bit of a learning curve and to be honest, I still don't know how to access my own account directly (somehow it got screwed up or they've fixed things since joined).

GM, I aimed the message spell at one of the GOBLINS. Not the bugbear. Being tricky here :)

Ok... your bolded text is a bit confusing to me and makes it sound like it is being delivered to the Bugbear. You were very tricky... tricked me! Post it again, and we'll try to make it work for the best since a lot just happened after your turn.

Post it again?

I am used to reading the posts in initiative order, regardless of the order posted. So I figured Grim was still on the ground when his turn to bleed came up and then Lore moved up and healed him (even though she posted first). I greatly appreciate the healing though and apologize for the confusion I may have caused. :-)

I am working on Chronicle Sheets now... you get 520gp if you want to start planning your shopping trips!
If you want to make a Dayjob roll, now is your chance!

Awesome and thanks for running it. No day job for Grim.

Arduino, was that mean to be an Aid Another on K Nature?

Yep.

Hey guys, after continuing to think about it, I think I will drop out. Kujo only needs 1xp for 3rd level and I'd rather just run a quick scenario as opposed to spending nearly all of 3rd level at 2nd level.

If you need help finding a replacement, I know several people with 1st level characters that I'm sure would be interested in signing up.

I will say this was a fun group to run with and will look for you guys when you get back to running scenarios.

Sounds good Kujo. Definitely is a good group. Will look forward to running with you again...

prof chef: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (9) + 9 = 18